Pointe and Shoot

I had a fun little photoshoot for my blog the other day with our wedding photographer (and friend) Sara Liu. She does fantastic work and these photos just captured such adorable doggie moments :) We were trying to incorporate the whole "From nursing clogs to pointe shoes" theme so that I could have a new fun banner for the page.

Thanks Sara!!!
(Visit Sara's photography page LeeLiu Photography to view her beautiful photos and even request her services!)

Adorable Mei-Linh (L) and Kona (R), my little pug supermodels :) 

You can find a barre just about anywhere!

I ADORE this one so much, but I wish Mei-Mei was in the picture too. She was left out of this one :( 

Sara said, "this picture has so much going on!" 

haha... pointe shoes, stethoscope, pug, me in the background in scrubs... <3 <3 <3 it!

awwwww... 

Pugs, nursing, and pointe. What's not to love?! 

Poor Mei looks like she's got seasonal allergies and is about to sneeze

I think this is the one I might end up using for the blog banner. What do you think? 

...or this one, but my pointe is just so bad, so I hesitate posting this one on the banner. 

Beautiful Bloch Serenades

HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!

My beautimous pointe shoes have arrived!

After watching a few how-to video tutorials on sewing ribbons and elastics onto pointe shoes, I started my sewing of the ribbons at about 9:45 PM and finally finished all my sewing at about 10:20 PM (Megan, I know this does NOT count my sewing of my elastics during your wedding gown appointment...) Here are some photos:

Required supplies for pointe shoe sewing: 

light thread, sparkly happy scissors, a lighter (to singe the ribbon ends), elastics, and ribbons!

Ta-da!!!!! 
All done!

(these are Bloch Serenades with Bloch invisible elastic and Bloch Elastorib ribbons)

I stood up in susu, did a soutenu, and did some tendus and ronde de jambes in them. Obviously they're not the most comfortable of shoes, but in pointe shoe world, my limited perspective leads me to believe these aren't bad! My toes don't feel scrunched, and I felt pretty well-balanced on the platform! 

...now to get a portable barre for home-practice :) 

Semaine 15 (Part Deux)

OK, so Jeff and I made it back from Ohio at 4:40 PM, so I had time to relax with the doggies and then get to ballet class! Vihao came, yay!

So, Thursday night's was @ 7:30 PM usually with Clark, but we had a substitute. It was the most awkward class I've ever been to ever. Ever. While I'm sure the instructor is nice outside the classroom, she didn't come off very friendly. She didn't really smile. Also, her exercises were "meh" alright, not difficult. She had the exercises listed on a piece of paper and there was just an extremely awkward length of time where she spent reading the paper then figuring out how it worked with the music. I dunno, it was just really awkward.  I hate to say it, but it didn't quite feel like it was worth the $16 on my 10-class punch card. While we did do a fun barre exercise where we basically walked down the bar starting in Fifth, tendu front, then lunged (I'm 99% sure there's an official ballet term for this but I couldn't tell ya), then up to passé with the back leg, close front, then again x 4. Then we took the inside (barre side) leg tendu back, then turned the other way and did 4 of the same exercise again. I didn't feel like we did very CHALLENGING barre work, overall. Centrework was better but still not without awkward silence. We had jetes across the floor from the corner, but it was also awkward because she seemed very indecisive of what she wanted us to do... I missed Clark. Looking forward to Monday's class with Walsh (or hey, I'd take Shu-Chen if she were around, she was awesome!)!!

I forced Vihao to take a picture with me since I haven't given my blog readers anything of substance to watch/look at like photos or videos (sorry, corner exercises haven't been very exciting, so I haven't wanted to record), hahaha. Vihao didn't want to record our jetes but that's ok, I was kinda just ready to go home after the class. Anyway, to the right, a fun picture pretending we're pas de deux partners. But in the hallway... oops.

So I met Vihao two years ago through my husband Jeff, since they work together at Microstrategy, Inc. in Tyson's Corner. We've spent some time in Amsterdam on a trip for Microstrategy, at lunches, weddings, and other events, but we never really got to talking about ballet.

Jeff just recently formed an informal P90X workout group at Microstrategy in their gym and Vihao joined Jeff probably about a month ago. So, I found out that Vihao has been taking ballet for 2-3 years at the Kintz-Mejia in Vienna, VA. He got into ballet classes after being hired for a lot of ballet photography sessions at the studio, and has since then been hired out for two-hour sessions with ABT (American Ballet Theater), for Dance Spirit magazine, and personal shoots. He continues classes twice a week at Kintz-Mejia. Now hopefully I've found another ballet buddy :) I think I scared him away from BalletNova though, because the class was so awkward a big adjustment from the comforts of his studio. I hope he comes and tries a Monday class with Walsh, because I love her classes and the live pianist really makes it a lot more exciting.

If you want to see some absolutely gorgeous photos of ballet dancers, check out his Facebook page or his personal website, Vihao Pham Photography.

Some of my favorite photos from Vihao's collections:

I love photos of pointe shoes and the colors here are so vibrant

Dance in the City photoshoot in NYC

I love this picture, dancers in real life settings

just plain pretty!

Beautiful work!

New Terminology from 9/27:

soutenu

tour de reins

PS: Have you noticed the new blog banner? Jeff was working on making on an improvement without my knowing and I love it :) I have such a supportive husband! Thanks, Jeffrey!

Semaine 15

This week's schedule is probably only going to be the Monday class, since Jeff and I have to go back to Ohio on Thursday to collect our repaired car from the 8/27 accident. If he and I make it back into town before it's too late, I'm going to try to make it to class. Jeff's coworker Vihao, who has been taking ballet at a studio closeby, wants to join me in class to see how my studio is, so hopefully we make it back into town so he and I can go together! In his words, we will try to do a "student exchange" program, where I'll take a class at his studio (Kintz-Meijia Ballet Academy), too. It's always good to try out different studios I guess, to see if one fits your needs better, and it also would help to see where my technique is at in comparison. His classes are Beginners on Tuesdays and Intermediate on Wednesdays. Right now my schedule won't fit in with his, since I work on those days, but I think every now and then I should have a day free to drop in!

Anyhow, this Monday's class was great. It was led by Shu-Chen, the Gin Dance Company founder and artistic director. She was fantastic! She has beautiful beautiful feet, was funny, and had challenging exercises that were all doable but took some getting used to. Constance Walsh was out of town for some ballet conference thingy I think. But it was definitely a pleasure to take class from Shu-Chen and I hope she comes back some time soon!

Pictured: Shu-Chen

Today I did a goofy thing... and it stems back from when I did the LAST really silly dorky nerdy goofy thing. I bought pointe shoes. I know. I said it. I did it. I went to the dance store nearby and got fitted for pointe shoes, telling the manager/fitter that my "instructor gave me the go ahead for the Spring" <-- not true. I guess I COULD say that Saki is my "other instructor," and she would've told me to just get fitted so I can see what brand works for me so that when the time COMES, I would know... so I went based off of that. Plus, what's another 5 months after when I told the lady I'd start pointe? =P So anyway, I tried on Bloch, Chacott, Grishko, and Russian Pointe. The best fitting pair were a pair of Bloch Serenades, 3.5C. This wasn't terribly off of the Grishko 2007's that I got off of eBay back in my early blog entry, since I ordered a size 3 back then I think, based off a size 6 street shoe.. However, the lady went by my ballet slipper size (6.5) so a 3.5 was the best fit. I guess ballet dancers have real narrow feet sometimes, because I'm considered a C width and I have pretty narrow/regular feet in my opinion.

Click here to see the Serenades on Discountdance.com, here's a pic though:

OMG aren't they pretty? These (both photos) are the exact ones I got, a 3.5 C =) Preeeeettty pointe shoes. I got 'em on eBay for $35 with Free Shipping, woot! 

Rolling up to pointe in the Blochs (and all the pointe shoes I tried) was actually really easy and was a LOT MORE COMFORTABLE than I expected! It was easy to go to susu (closed fifth position en pointe or demi pointe) without holding onto the barre. I didn't passe in them in the store but it was so fun to wear them and roll up to pointe and not feel like I was torturing my feet! Fun Fun Fun! Can't wait to get 'em so I can take some pictures and practice some controlled moves in them...muahahaha... I know this is somewhat disrespecting the art of ballet, but I'm way too impatient to wait until next Fall. At $35, I don't mind getting re-fitted in a year and getting different shoes. 

...So now I'll need to get some elastic, ribbons, and lambswool toe pads. =P

Bloch makes an Elastorib ribbon (Right) that has elastic positioned where the ribbon would wrap around the achilles' tendon, which reduces the occurrence of tendonitis, a common problem with ribbons tied too-tightly around the ankle. On the left are pictured lambswool toe pillows.

My goodness, I am just hanging my head out of shame for myself. Hahah... 

New Term this Week: 

pas de cheval: 

"step of the horse," where the dancer does a coupe then a small developpe and tendu back into the starting position. 

Semaine 14 - "Don't Crush your Tutu"

I think I'll try to come up with a funny lesson/quote that was said in class, for each week. This week's was "Don't crush your tutu!" said by Walsh, in describing how we use our arms and not dropping our arms too low, and not swooping up and overdramatically with our tambe.

"Don't crush your tutu!" There are way too many adorable pug tutu pictures on the internet... 

I have a hard time choosing which one =) 

Mei-Mei is definitely going to be a ballerina for Halloween this year!

Monday Night @ 6:15 PM - Walsh

Monday night's class was with the wonderful Walsh! Again it was a pleasant experience, I sweated my tutu off haha... nothing exciting to show in a video, so Kelly and I didn't record a clip. Hopefully Thursday's class will have something exciting... if anything maybe I'll have her take a pic of me in the splits? This week for corner exercises all we did was a tambe-pas de burre combo and then a soute arabesque one. Not that thrilling, it's nothing we haven't done already.

Video clip of assemble, from last week's centrework exercise

I called Art Stone Dance Supply (the one I got my leotard from back in June) if they carried demi pointe shoes. Unfortunately they don't (sighh...) I may just get a pair off of discountdance.com then. What I think I may do is go to the store, ask again (pretending that I hadn't already), and when they say no, I'll ask if I can get fitted into Sansha's (link click here) anyway so that I know what size I am since they don't carry them and that I'll come back for my pointes in the future. =D Maybe they won't hate me too much. That's my goal for Thursday, my next day off. They're only $25.20 and are the better of the two that can be purchased on discountdance.com, since this one has a wider, more square box/pointe.

Comparison: 

Left: European ($29.95), Right: American ($25.20). Note the one on the right has a more square box, and the one on the left is a smaller box that is tapered at the toe. I like the one on the right way more. 

Thursday Night @ 7:30 PM - Clark

Class was fine, nothing new or exciting to be learned, except for when Clark uses me as the example before a floor routine, I completely screw it up and look like I'm out of my league in that class hah. We did pirouette exercises again and when I get used to the way she does a certain exercise, I assume it's the same routine the next time. Even if I listen to her, I'm not paying attention to her change up the exercise. So of course, when she said "plie, quarter turn," knowing it was a pirouette exercise, I still did the "preparacion" which was plie - passe - plie, quarter turn. NOPE! Wasn't paying attention. Additionally, with my old woman mind and muscle memory, when she told me to reverse and go the other way, I still did the preparacion. Dangit! {hand slaps forehead}

I really didn't feel like videotaping any of the corner exercises they weren't exciting. All it was, was a chasse grand jete - step - grand jete, and the other was a soute arabesque exercise we've done in the past. 

That's all for this week. Hopefully the week of September 23rd is more exciting! Depending on if Jeff and I have to fly to Ohio to get the car, I may or may not be able to attend class on Thursday. :( sad. 

Semaine 13

{sorry for posting so late, with Jeff's 30th bday this weekend, I got distracted}

~Monday Night~

I'm writing this on Monday night after my class with Constance Walsh - O.M.G. I. LOVE. HER. Kelly was right, she is the best teacher EVER! I know I said this after class with Clark, and while I do love Clark, I am so grateful and happy to have TWO instructors as my regulars whom I adore! Since I enrolled on Mondays at 6:15 PM, I'll have Walsh every week (weeeeeeeee!!!) and then on Thursdays as a walk-in, as long as I am free for class on Thursday nights, I'll have Clark! I'm so excited! BalletNova's motto is "Where you dance matters," and I'm seriously a believer! I think that Walsh's instruction and guidance will really help me. She smiles, she laughs and jokes around, but also comes up with challenging combinations and pays attention to every student helping them individually. When we were doing a reverse passé, she came up and fixed my heel so that my turnout was better (I had no idea I was doing it THAT wrong!), and fixed my hands in port de bras a la seconde (second position arms). No videos for this class, we didn't do challenging corner work. The more challenging parts were a developpe exercise that was just too complicated for my early-alzheimer's brain to handle haha... but it wasn't beyond comprehension... I was just too slow-minded that I would flub it every other attempt haha...

The best thing about Monday night class - A LIVE PIANIST! I seriously felt like I was in a class straight out of Center Stage:

Fast Forward to 2:55 and that was how our class felt with the live music! Sooo fun :) 

~Thursday Night~ 

So, Kelly didn't join me on Thursday night's class with Clark, which I thought was OK. Well, turns out I was wrong. Yknow when you have one of those days where physically you're present, but mentally you're spaced out completely? Almost every time Clark gave a combination to us, I would just NOT GET IT. It wasn't that the combos were HARD, my mind just wasn't there! It was so frustrating!! Since I'm not classically trained aside from what I've learned since this past June, I need the instructor to be specific about what the combination IS. The problem with Thursday was that she would step-through the first 1/4 of the combination and then change something up within it but wouldn't demonstrate it. Instead, she just used the terminology and that just messed me up because I don't KNOW ALL of the terminology. This was my first really truly frustrating classes at BalletNova. Sigh. 

After class I met up with Saki, my friend I met through Jeff, who helped mentor and guide me along this whole ballet journey (She's the one who teaches at Washington School of Ballet... She also hooked Jeff and me up with free tickets to The Nutcracker last Christmas!). We met up at the Capital City Brewery down in Shirlington and caught up. After talking about her new engagement, we eventually talked about my ballet classes. I told her about what I'm learning, how my bad class was that night, and then about what my plans were for the next year. She gawked at the price of classes at BalletNova ($329 for 18-ish classes, plus supplementing with $16/class for a second class each week). So, she suggested that after this Fall Session is complete, that I consider taking classes at other studios she has taught or has friends who take class. One of them is the Metropolitan Fine Arts Center and the other is The Ballet Studio (Saki used to work here and knows the owner really well). Both have recitals that include adult ballet classes! (exciting!) MFAC is $330 for a 30 class card ($11/class; no registration only class card attendance) and The Ballet Studio is $18/class for an 8-class card (more expensive than BalletNova). The only upside of The Ballet Studio is that Saki's friend teaches the Advanced Adult Ballet + Pointe class, which as an enrolled student is $325. This is for Fall, which is only Sept 10-Dec 15 vs. Sept 3-Feb 3 at BalletNova (Advanced Beg Ballet + Pointe would be $439, for comparison purposes). So it seems like once on pointe, BalletNova is cheaper. BUT, Saki said that her friend who teaches the Advanced Adult + Pointe class has only 4 students right now, and could give me a lot of focused attention to help me get on pointe faster. Lots to think about. For right now, I'm sticking with BalletNova. May as well, since my work schedule is all figured out with my Monday enrollment, and it's just too complicated to factor in starting at a new studio. Knowing me, I'd probably wind up at the wrong studio on the wrong day and miss out overall haha. 

Saki did mention demi-pointe shoes. I've never heard of them, but she said they are good for training those who have weak arches, to get on pointe. Since I don't have weak arches, she said I may not need them, but based on my quick google research, they help prep for pointe and get the dancer used to the feel of pointe shoes. Also, she suggested seeing Maggie from Washington School of Ballet when looking into pointe shoes, since she used to work in ballet retail. :) OMG now I am like... intensely wanting a pair just to mess around with hahaha... Found them online at Discount Dance and they are $25 a pair... omg I can feel my excitement grow =P Definitely stopping by the dance supply store nearby to get sized tomorrow, weeeee!!!!! OF COURSE, I wouldn't dare bringing these into class, lest I be judged or scoffed at! I'll dance in private in these. Yay.

Demi-Pointe Shoes

OK so throwback to early entries... 

New Terminology This Week: 

Echappe 

Assemble

Fall Ballet Schedule

Oh gosh, so I was just working on my Fall ballet schedule - a total of 43 classes! Look at this sucker:

Walk-In Week: $10/class
Mon Aug 27th @ 6:15 PM (Walsh)
Thurs Aug 30th @ 7:30 PM (Clark - she's awesome!! my fave)

Fall Session:

(All Mondays are enrolled with Walsh)

September:
Thurs Sept 6th @ 7:30 PM make-up for Labor Day (Clark)
Mon Sept 10th Enrolled @ 6:15
Thurs Sept 13th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Sept 17th Enrolled @ 6:15
Thurs Sept 20th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Sept 24th Enrolled @ 6:15
Thurs Sept 27th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Fri Sept 28th @ 6:30 PM (Burnstein)

October:
Mon Oct 1st Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 4th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Oct 8th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 11th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Oct 15th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 18th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Oct 22nd Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 25th @ 7:30 PM
Mon Oct 29th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM

November:
Thurs Nov 1st @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Nov 5th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Nov 8th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Nov 12th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Nov 15th 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Nov 19th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING
Mon Nov 26th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Nov 29th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)

December:
Mon Dec 3rd Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Dec 6th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Dec 10th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Dec 13th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Dec 17th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Dec 20th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
BALLET STUDIO CLOSED CHRISTMAS 24TH-26TH
Thurs Dec 27th @ 10 AM and 7:30 PM (one Christmas make-up and one extra class; Perez/Clark)

January: 
BALLET STUDIO CLOSED DEC 31-JAN 1ST
Thurs Jan 3rd @ 10 AM and 7:30 PM (one New Year's make-up and one extra class; Perez/Clark)
Mon Jan 7th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 10th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Jan 14th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 17th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Jan 21st Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 24th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Jan 28th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 31st @ 7:30 PM (Clark)

For the most part, two classes per week. I can't wait until Fall Session is over so that I can consider taking Advanced Beginning Ballet in the Winter/Spring Session! 

Description of Ballet II (Advanced Beg Ballet): 
"Must have at least 2 years of Ballet experience. This is a good level for non-beginning dancers unsure of their level, those returning after some time away from the ballet studio, and those confident at the Beginning Ballet level. Dancers should have a full understanding of ballet terminology. Students can expect a full barre followed by center with pirouette combinations, petit and grand allegro with 1-to-1 and 2-to-1 foot jumps."

I recall that Nobu only has been dancing ballet for a year, but is taking a couple more classes per week. She'd only been taking Ballet for Non-Beginners (BBFNB) for 2 sessions before starting Advanced Beginning, so maybe Spring/Winter will be it! Maybe I'll have to wait til next Summer session to feel more confident to start it but I must ...  

Semaine 11 (Part One)

This post is going to be short and sweet - have to wake up at 5:30 AM for work in the morning! 

Tonight's class was Irina's Monday 7:45 pm class, but substituted by Leisel, the awesome sub from last week's Monday night class. I really like her and she has such a beautiful pointe.

I got to class about 40 minutes early (I had to pick up my car from the service center, which is close by and closed at 7 PM) so I had a long time to stretch beforehand. The Company dancers were warming up next to me, and wow - I have a long ways to go! You could just tell they're so good just by watching them stretch!! They were all thin, lean, long, and when they pointed their toes and stretched out their legs, you could just imagine how great their technique is.

I took a photo of my floor pointe so I could compare it in the next few months and see how much I have progressed. Here's my "semi-start pointe" in the first photo and then the second pic is of me stretching out my feet before class in the second photo. It's not very impressive... but it'll be a benchmark.
                                

One of the company dancers was able to comPLETELY bend her foot

So you see where the pink arrow is pointing to? This Company dancer could literally TOUCH that part of the foot directly to the ground where it was practically bent in half! **way farther than this foot**

I found this contraption online at footstretch.com that looks tempting..

 

At €133 (€98 for the foot stretcher + €35 for air mail) it's kinda pricey ($163.98) 

Anyway, tonight we did the really good pirouette practice for centrework, a glissade-jete-tombe-pas de chat combo, and then a repeat of the corner exercise routine from last week (I know I need to work on getting my arms better and looking less flimsy floppy and more crisp...?!)

I think Kelly and I are progressing pretty well - well, where we're keeping up with class where we are right in the middle skill-wise? Next class is Thursday 6:15 pm!!